62 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
frustrated. I am confident that the park bill will be in- 
dorsed by the people to-day, and I am also confident that it 
“will require an enormous pressure to induce Judge Depue 
to appoint any commissioners in place of the five he first 
named, in whose ability, integrity and judgment the public, 
as well as myself, have full confidence. 
“Yours very truly, 
“Wittiam A. URE.” 
SCENE OF ACTION SHIFTED. 
This correspondence is given thus fully, as it gives a clear 
and correct reflex of the situation at that time. Immedi- 
ately after the county vote was found to have given a large 
majority for the park bill, almost the entire field of activity 
for the parks and the pressure from political and special 
interests was at once transferred, and the scene of focal 
action shifted to, the inner room of the court, or wherever 
the judge having the appointments to make could be found. 
In most instances, where large and diversified interests 
are at stake and conflicting claims become a factor for adju- 
dication, whether before a court, a legislative body or an 
executive official, things are not always what they seem, and 
the kaleidoscopic conditions of conclusion may be frequently 
shifted almost from day to day as the see-saw of contending 
influences and varying elements enter into the final disposi- 
tion of the subject in hand. ; 
The question then before the court was no exception to 
this rule. True, the judge, in announcing the new commis- 
sion the morning of April 18, 1895, gave as quoted below 
some of the reasons that appealed to him for making the 
change against what was evidently the trend of public de- 
sire, and the conclusion left upon Mr. Ure’s mind prior to 
the appointment that no change would be made. That pre- 
sentment of the judge, however, gave no intimation of, nor 
made the slightest reference to, some of the most important 
and potential influences brought to bear upon him to make 
the changes as he did. Those influences were known to a 
few at the time, but so far as I know have not yet been 
